>> this is "bbc world news." funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to guide you through the business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put our extended global

network to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news." >> european leaders gather for a summit in brussels. but in france and germany, are they pulling in the same direction? the stakes are as high as ever. violence incre the greek capital, bringing things to a standstill. will the summit have anything to say to the protesters? hello and welcome. i'm george alagiah with a world of news and opinion.

china's growth rate continues to slow. we will find out why the markets are not so worried. a prolonged campaign has gathered outside northern ireland's abortion clinics -- a pro-life campaign. german chancellor had said that she thinkn union top financial officials should have the power to veto the national budgets of member states. there will be plenty of leaders at the european union summit in brussels later today to disagree with terror. if that's not enough, there seems to be tension between france and germany. the alliance. here's what they will be discussing. >> 14 years ago -- 13 years ago,

this was the world as it looked to the european commission. the launch of the the euro system. they were setting up an imperfect system that they are trying to fix right now. fast-forward to the same building today, where leaders will continue their debate on what they're willing to do to create a viable single currency. one step on the road is a banking union that would cover the euro zone. it would have a single supervisor, a common bank deposit scheme for all customers and a common rescue scheme. in the european commission, a top floor, the president believes the first of those can happen soon. >> what i still expect is possible is to have an agreement until the end of this year on an important element of the banking

union, a single supervisory mechanism. i expect the next european council to agree on the main elements of the proposal. >> the debate that's taking place within these buildings will have a profound impact on the way the european union is set up. most of the measures being discussed relates to the countries in the euro zone. others outside the single currency like britain will have to decide how much they which to be involved -- wish to be involved. for now it is fixing but single currency that is key. main players are divided, but they do want to find a solution. >> we will speak with matthew price in brussels in a moment. european leaders will meet against a backdrop of another general strike in greece, the

second in nearly a month. our correspondent mark lowen is there. you were wearing a gas mask because i assumed things have taken a turn for the worst. >> forgive me if i put this on in a moment, but there has been tear-gas fired across the square. it's very nasty when it gets into your eyes. there have been stun grenades as well. it has been peaceful overall with tens of thousands of people who have gathered on the streets of central athens with a general strike across the public and private sectors. everyone from doctors and teachers and taxi drivers and even air traffic controllers. it is the 20th general strike here since the debt crisis erupted in 2010. the message in the streets is

greeks cannot take any more. >> i will back to you in a second. the 20th and general strike, he says. these events in spain and greece and elsewhere, are they having an impact on the leaders when they meet behind closed doors? >> it would be wrong to say they're not having any impact, but i am always struck by the difference between what i see on the streets of places like madrid and athens and elsewhere and the general feeling in brussels. at the moment, with the pressure taken off somewhat by the european central bank announcement earlier this year by mario draghi, saying that he would provide unlimited support to countries like spain, and

there's a sense of, in this city at the moment even while events like that take place on the streets of athens. -- a sense of calm. >> in some papers there are tensions between france and germany, the alliance that we have always said drives the union. >> in has been the alliance that has always driven the union. on many issues, the french and germans of not always seen eye to eye. this has been finding a middle ground between them that has resulted in the compromise that europe then pushes ahead with. optimists are hoping the same capthappens in the case of the euro zone. we have seen this in angela merkel's comments and the french

leader's comments. optimists would say within their differences there's always a compromise. but the danger, which is what i think you are getting at, is that, especially with the market pressure off at the moment, but there's no real push to resolve the differences, but they get into a political deadlock. that's pretty dangerous. although there's more investor calm at the moment in spain and elsewhere, the debt problems remain and still need sorting out. europe still has to sort out how it fixes the single currency. >> you're talking about the prime minister negotiating the condition of another part of the bailout. what about his position within the coalition? what effect are the negotiations

having on his relationship? >> this is a rare thing in this country to have a three party coalition. greece usually has single party rule. the cracks within the coalition are emerging already. two of the three parties are opposed to more cuts in the labor market. and a cut to severance pay and 15,000 job losses this year. they said they will vote against it. that's why the austerity measures package has not been finally agreed upon. that shows the agreement -- disagreement at the political level, let alone on the streets. immense anger continues to rise and translates into more and more people moving towards political extremes. there's a lot at stake. the anti-immigrant neo-nazi party has shot up to a third

party in the opinion polls. that shows the depth of anger e today. >> thank you. while european leaders are trying to resolve the crisis in their region, china's economy is experiencing a slowdown of its own. 2012 is the country's lowest year of growth since 1999. that's from a high of 12% two years ago, growth is now 7.4%. that is still the envy of most other countries. martin is in beijing. >> they have just gotten hitched. since the summer they have splurged on a tv as well as two computers. they are furnishing their new home. >> we usually and spend a lot of

money. we want to have a good quality of life. but it's very expensive here. >> carefree consumer spending is exactly what china leaders want to see. in this town, orders are piling up. these goods would have once been shipped overseas. but this town is a major center for on-line shopping, catering to millions of chinese consumers. everyday he sells 10,000 pairs of underwear. she says that by targeting the domestic market, her business has boomed. >> we currently have 10 staff in the office, but i'm looking to take on new people. i think we have a very good future. >> despite the growth, chinese consumption is just half that of the u.s. that will be one of the biggest challenges facing china's next

generation of leaders. boosting domestic consumption will not be easy. it will involve carrying out painful economic reforms. it is a prospect that china must go through in order to ensure more sustainable economic growth. -- it is a process that china must go through. she likes the comforts of life. she spends what she earns and it's fine with that. china will need millions more like her if its economy is to change. bbc news, beijing. >> hundreds of women every year travel to britain for an abortion from ireland. strict controls in northern ireland 150 years. now there's the opening of the first private family planning clinic. a protest of anti-abortion

people have been protesting in belfast. how divisive is this new clinic proving to be? >> northern ireland is not used to this. protestants and catholics are adamantly opposed to abortion in any form. 120 people have turned out so far in belfast. we expect more to turn up from the presbyterian church as well. ireland is different from the rest of the u.k. an act was introduced in 1967 which allows abortions to take place up to 24 weeks. and arlen it's different. the legislation is from 1945 and

says the abortion can only take place in very limited circumstances, which means whenever there is strong and lasting potential for damage to the woman involved. >> is there not a recognition that women have been forced in the past to go across the water to britain to get their abortion? isn't it happening any way? >> yes, but people in ireland, northern saarland say the number is lower by virtue of the fact women have to go to england, wales, scotland in order to have a termination when it's not available here. this clinic proposes to have medical abortions, which would be taking a sequence of pills rather than a surgical abortion.

1004 women traveled last year to scotland, england, or wales, to have determination. that is a significantly lower number of women than currently have terminations in england, scotland,. and, people opposed termination say it's a good thing and those in favor of an extension of the 1967 act say they're pleased to see this clinic opening here. >> thank you very much. still to come, dry land and a hug after being alone at sea. human trafficking into britain is on the increase according to new government estimates. organized criminal gangs are behind the illegal trade in people for sex, labor, and domestic slavery. most victims come from china,

nigeria, and eastern europe. the first cases of people being brought to the u.k. to have organs removed has also been recorded. now this report. >> police have been stepping up the fight against the global trade in people. when they moved in they sometimes find children such as these romanians. sometimes women destined to be enforced prostitution. often and coursed into hotel, restaurant, or building work. -- often men coerced. 710 reported the year before last and over 900 last year. sophie is british. she has to hide their identity from her trafficker, a man who pretended to be her boyfriend, with uecker to italy on holiday before turning on her.

>> he told me i would have to go and work on the streets for him and i would have to become a prostitute. i thought i could reason with him and tell him i did not want to do that. he pinned against the wall and almost strangled me. i could not think any more or do anything because he controlled everything. >> immigration minister says the key to tackling the problem is better coordination between government departments and foreign law enforcement agencies. bbc news reporting. >> to find out more about the reasons behind trafficking, go to our web site. a report indicates an increasing number of people are traffic into the u.k. this is gmt from bbc world news. i'm george alagiah. the headlines, a general strike gets under way in greece as

european leaders gathered to tackle the debt crisis. chinese growth slows further, but other figures suggest it could be stabilizing. aaron has business news. it's a trick question. growth continuing to slow in china, but the markets seem to be ok with it. >> the chinese economy continues to slow, but the pace of the slowdown is declining. in the past three months the chinese economy grew at 7.4%. the previous three months it grew at 7.6%. the drop in the pace is slowing. it is still a growth of double digits over the past two years. growth like that is pretty unstable. stabilization is what we wanted to see with the chinese economy, and that's happening.

production at chinese factories is increasing and mining is on the way up in china. and the retail sales in the last three months, up over 14%. that means chinese people are spending. that brings a dilemma for the beijing policy makers. how to shift away from being so rely on exports to getting the chinese people buying and spending more on the ground. all the action taken by beijing for now seems to be working. >> china has had a very unbalanced growth model in recent years. first it was overly reliant on exports. in 2008 and 2009 there was a big slowdown in exports. so the government moved to support growth by wrapping up investments. now that created its own problems. it has been trying to rein in a lot of that investment. that has brought the growth down. now the government has relaxed policy a little and we've seen interest rate cuts and more bank loans, part of government

policy. those are beginning to have an effect and we can see those coming through. >> let's look at communications. old world versus new world. nokia versus googol. both companies with results. >> let's start with google. every time we do a search on line, it's a good chance it is on google. 67% of all searches are through google. companies pay it every time we click on one of those ads. we are turning to our mobile devices to search is now. that means we don't typically click on ads when we are on the go. we are waiting to hear the company game plan on that. nokia in the last three months lost $1.30 billion. more hardships for the company.

it is a waiting game. next month in november they will launch a new lumia model. so much hope pinned on that the new model. the experts, i have asked them whether this will turn around the company's misfortune? >> we thought it was going to be amazing in september and now announcements have dashed the hopes that they will be able to turn things around. microsoft now has windows 8 next week, a big launch event for that part of microsoft's business. and they're announcing details about the windows phone 8, where nokia comes into play. just when you to think maybe this is the moment, google says they will announce a new batch of phones on october 29.

excluding the company went down. apple will also be making a launched very soon, and it's likely to be the mini ipad. >> thank you. police in new york have arrested a bangladeshi for plotting to detonate what he thought was a massive bomb in front of the city's federal reserve building. the device was a dummy assembled by undercover fbi agents. now this report. >> it was a very ambitious plot. the building with the red roof is the federal reserve bank, a heavily fortified structure in the heart of the financial district, sitting on top of the world's largest stockpile of gold. quazi mohammad nafis focused on the bank after considering other targets. the 21-year-old was said to be inspired by al qaeda, although there are doubts he's connected to it. prexy came here in january this year and got a student visa under the pretext of being a student at college in missouri.

he came here with the purpose of committing some sort of jihad in the united states. >> from his home in queens, he is reported to have looked for recruits to help him but ended up giving off an fbi informer. the police and the fbi let him carry on with his plot. an undercover agents applied with fake explosives and arrested him as he tried to detonate if what he thought was a 1,000 pound bomb in a van parked outside. the public was never in danger gutted brought back bad memories for some. >> i don't like it. i was here for 9/11 and we were affected, so i did not want to relive that. >> we are a target for terrorists here and it goes with the territory. >> he has been brought to court to face charges of terrorism.

the latest suspect picked up in a sting operation. some criticize the government's role in mentoring such plots, but police argue if they don't get their hands on such radicalized young man early, they could do real damage. this is his court-appointed lawyer leaving after the hearing. her client did not succeed in carrying out this attack, but his case is a reminder that new york continue to be a target. bbc news, new york. >> a man who spent a week of in his vote after the mast was ripped off has arrived back on dry land in australia. he was reunited with his mother in city after the pilot of a commercial flight over the seat instructed his passengers to help in the search and rescue effort. now this report from sydney from duncan kennedy. >> bare footed, this was a moment he thought would never happen. dry land and a hug from his mother. >> you've got no idea of the

difference between standing on land and being in the massive sees not knowing where you are. >> sheer relief. craig moe paris have been answered. >> the drama began two weeks ago when glen set off to ceylon dream voyage to new zealand. this police video shows what happened. to happened. they boarded his yacht to find missinged m -- mast after the vessel was told by a giant wave, leaving him adrift. he thought he was relatively close to the shoreline of sydney. in fact, he was 270 nautical miles out to sea and without any fuel left. so he said of his emergency beacon. that's where the story takes another incredible twist. two commercial airlines including an air canada jet were diverted to help look for him. the air canada plane descended

to 35,000 feet to 5,000 feet and passengers were asked to act as lookouts, eventually spotting him in the ocean below. >> the captain came on making an announcement saying there were so pleased they had identified the yacht and they could see a person on top of it and they had alerted search and rescue and there were sending out rescue helicopters. >> police were sent to the scene and picked him up. >> but i was not freed until i knew where i was. when i knew i was 270 miles rather than 60 miles, i was a little concerned. by this time, these guys had found me, so i was hopeful we could work something out. >> celebrations in the form of a pitcher-sized drink. when asked if he was headed back to see, he said that he's not because it is too scary. bbc news, sydney. >> we have covered a lot, but

there is even more. stay with us on bbc world news. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding for this presentation was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to use their expertise in global finance to guide you through the

business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put our extended global network to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? >> "bbc worl